Science & Technology

BEIJING, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Lunar rover Yutu-2 has been driving on the far side of the moon after separating from the lander and scientific devices on both the lander and rover are currently gathering data, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said late Friday.

At 17:00 local time in Beijing, the three 5-meter antennas of the low-frequency radio spectrometer on the lander have fully spread out, said the CNSA in a statement.

TEHRAN, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Friday that the launch of space rockets does not breach UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

"Iran's launch of space vehicles, missile tests are NOT in violation of Resolution 2231. The U.S. is in material breach of the same as such it is in no position to lecture anyone on it", Zarif tweeted.

The Iranian minister's reaction followed the remark of the U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, on Thursday about Iran's planned imminent launch of Space Launch Vehicles (SLV).

BEIJING, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- China's lunar rover, Yutu-2, or Jade Rabbit-2, left the first ever "footprint" from a human spacecraft on the far side of the moon late at night on Thursday, after it separated from the lander smoothly.

The rover touched the lunar surface at 10:22 p.m. on Thursday, leaving a trace on the loose lunar soil. The process was recorded by the camera on the lander and the images were sent back to the Earth via the relay satellite "Queqiao", the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced.

BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese spacecraft on Thursday made the first-ever landing on the far side of the moon, state media said.

The lunar explorer Chang’e 4 touched down at 10:26 a.m., China Central Television said in a brief announcement at the top of its noon news broadcast.

The far side of the moon faces away from Earth and is relatively unexplored. It is also known as the dark side of the moon.

BEIJING, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- China is striving to gain a lead in the global race toward building an intelligent and data-driven society, as the country has the highest number of smart city pilot projects in the world, the China Daily reported Wednesday.

The world's second-largest economy has more than 500 smart city pilot projects ready or under construction, accounting for about half of the world's total, the newspaper cited a recent report by consulting company Deloitte.

01 Jan 2019; DW:The NASA spacecraft that studied Pluto will zip past an icy rock in the outer solar system. Scientists hope Ultima Thule will help them understand how planets were formed.A NASA spacecraft buzzed by an icy space rock in the distant reaches of the solar system on Tuesday on a mission to gather clues about how planets were formed.

MOSCOW, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Russia's Aerospace Forces will get their first medium-range surface-to-air missile system S-350 Vityaz next year, the Defense Ministry said.

The troops will also be equipped with around a dozen Pantsir-S air defense missile-gun systems and S-400 Triumf long-range air defense weapons, the ministry said.

Russia has been modernizing its military equipment In recent years.

Russian troops stationed in the regions of Khabarovsk, Leningrad, Kaliningrad and Crimea were supplied with Pantsir-S and S-400 weapons earlier this year.

Beiging, Dec. 30 (Xinhua): China on Saturday opened a high-speed railway sector connecting Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province with Chengde, a popular summer resort about 230 km north of Beijing.

The new sector belongs to the Beijing-Harbin high-speed rail route that extends 1,250 km from the country's northeasternmost provincial capital Harbin to Beijing. The day-long trip from Harbin to Beijing will be cut to within five hours after the route is launched.

BEIJING, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- China's Chang'e-4 probe entered a planned orbit Sunday morning to prepare for the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced.

The probe has entered an elliptical lunar orbit, with the perilune at about 15 km and the apolune at about 100 km, at 8:55 a.m. Beijing Time, said CNSA.

MOSCOW, December 29. /TASS/. Russian scientists may send mice into the first flight around the Moon to study the influence of space factors on the human body, Director of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems within the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Medical Sciences Oleg Orlov said on Saturday.